Sunday. Day One

The British and American contingents joined forces at Tegel Airport in Berlin with the later giving Professor Duffy a warm welcome. I've noticed that some of the "British Personalities" such as Don Featherstone, David Chandler and Christopher Duffy are more revered by Americans than they are on their home turf. Perhaps it is just part of the human tendency to overlook or ignore that which is in your back yard and to marvel at things that lie on the other side of the fence.

The tour made its way from Berlin to Dresden, in Saxony, via motorcoach. The first stop was at a little hotel in the town of Kurort Gorhisch (or just "Gorhisch"). The hotel had formerly been a private resort for GDR officials and Stasi (secret police) personnel, so it supposedly represented some of the finer aspects of GDR hotel accomodations. That means that the place was moderately primative, complete with lots of rust and iron in the tap water. However, it was located in the Elbe River Valley, a few minutes from the Czech border and therefore extremely convenient for our visits to Kolin, Lobositz and Prague. Remember, there are few tourist-class hotels in the Czech Republic, outside of Prague, and besides, the scenery was beautiful, the food was excellent, and there must have been four or five nearby watering holes where one could sample the local ales and tell tall tales.

Sunday evening, Professor Duffy gave us a briefing on the Battle of Kolin (June 18, 1757). Prior to the trip, each participant was given a packet of twenty tactical and strategic maps of particular battle sites that covered each stop on our tour. Each day's briefing usually began with a perusal of the now-memorable Map 19, that depicted the Saxon and Bohemian theaters of operations. From there we would study tactical maps of the particular battle that we were scheduled to visit on that day. [Note: a copy of Map 19 can be found on the inside front cover of Duffy's The Military Life of Frederick the Great, Atheneum, New York 1986.] 

He went on to explain that there was much at stake for the Austrians at Kolin. Their principle army had recently been defeated by Frederick at Prague and it was now holed up in that city. Supplies were running short and the Prague garrison (46,00) men) would be forced to capitulate in a matter of days. Marshall Daun's relief army could not afford to lose to Frederick at Kolin since a second Austrian defeat in such a short span of time would knock Austria out of the war, yield Bohemia to the Prussians, and precipitate the breakup of the Habsburg Empire. The morale of Daun's troops was low and they faced 35,000 of Frederick's finest troops.

Christopher Duffy is a very engaging speaker, stuffing his lectures and briefings with numerous historical anecdotes, trivia and other bits and pieces of humor that hold one's interest. I daresay that even one who had no previous knowledge of the Seven Years War would find a Duffy lecture to be be of the highest entertainment.

Day Two - The Battle of Kolin

The day began with a three hour bus ride from Gorhisch, via Tetchen and Jung Bunzlau, that traced the route of the Prussian retreat after Kolin, only in reverse. The skies were clear and the weather was warm, much as it had been on the day of the battle. Kolin is located east of Prague on the great Bohemian Plain, and it was easy to see why this rich province was so important to Austria. The landscape was relatively flat with an occaisional rolling hill here or there. A major improved road, the Kaiserstrasse, ran through Kolin and on towards Prague in the west; the road was overlooked by a series of ridges that ran parellel to the road. It was on these hills that Marshall Daun deployed to face the advancing Prussian army.

Frederick typically began each battle with a short, personal reconnaisance of the opponent's position. Then he would call in his generals and issue detailed orders for an approach march and eventual deployment into a line of battle. The general idea was that the army on the march could march around the flank of a deployed opponent before said opponent deployed in battle line could react and change his position. Like Alte Fritz, Professor Duffy adhered to the same procedure, so we would begin each battlefield tour with a reconnaissance of the respective positions and a battle briefing. Then we would retrace the footsteps of the attacker's approach march before focusing on specific sites, or "stands ", as Duffy called them,on the battlefield.

The Kolin tour began at the small town of Planjan (Planian), where Frederick made his second reconnaissance of Daun's position. We could not see much from here, but then, neither could Alte Fritz, who would head east and make his final observation of the Austrian positions at the Inn of Slati Slunce (trans. "the golden sun"). Meanwhile, we moved up a small valley, along the Beczvarke Stream, to observe the initial Austrian position behind the stream facing west. Alte Fritz had marched from Prague and was on the east side of the Beczvarka.

The initial Austrian position was impregnable in that they were deployed on a large ridge, fronted by the marshy Beczvarka Stream and a number of "fish ponds " that in actuality were rather sizeable lakes. The Prussians could not have crossed this ground even if it had been undefended, it was that impassible. Frederick wasn't called great for nothing, and he had the good sense to realize that he could not fight on this ground, hence his decision to march to his left towards Planian, then to Slati Slunce, and finally to Krechor, to the east of our present position.

From there we cruised east on the Kaiserstrasse, now a two lane paved highway, to the town of Krechor, which represented the new right flank of the Austrian army. That wily wascally wabbit, Marshal Daun had shifted his army to the right as Frederick's army marched across his front [ "Marshall Daun, what are those nasty Prussians up to? " " Hmm, I've think I've seen this picture before; could they be marching around our flank? "] , so that the new Austrian line faced north, perpendicular to the original line. We stopped for a box lunch at Krechor and inspected a victory column that the Austrians or Czechs had built on the field. Note: there were few, if any, battle monuments or markers, unlike our ACW battlefields, and this was one of only two markers that I saw on the whole trip.

The monument was located atop a large man-made earth work refered to as the "Swedish Fort" on many of the Kolin battle maps. It must have been about fifteen feet high, rectangular in shape, about the size of a city block. It would have made for a rather imposing defensive work had the Austrians the time to occuppy it and improve the earthen dike, for no horse could climb its steep sides and some 35 or so tourists had a mildly difficult time scaling the dike without slipping. I believe that a unit or two of Croats occuppied this Lion long enough to delay the Prussian advance and allow enough time for the Austrian right wing to redeploy in this vacinity of the battlefield.

So, here we were, atop the Krechor Hill, eating our lunch, catching some rays of sun, and snapping tons of pictures of the battlefield below us. Paul Dangel and Phil Boinskie were kind enough to step off one hundred paces from the crest of the hill in order to give us an idea of the distances involved. They presented a very small target at that distance. Then they paced off another hundred steps and they both looked like small specks on the horizon. I recall thinking that I would not give the order to fire muskets until about fifty paces, because anything beyond that is difficult to see or hit - something to think about in our wargaming rules.

The slope of the hill seemed rather modest, but Paul and Phil assured us that the grade looked more imposing from their perspective, two hundred yards away, and that the climb did make them breath a bit harder. That is basically the essence of Kolin - the different look of the field from opposite vantage points. We worked our way fro east to west, along the Krechor Hill and the adjacent Przerovsky Hill, all the while making stops as Professor Duffy explained what happened in each sector of the field, emphasizing how different the terrain looked from the Austrian and Prussian perspectives.

While finishing off our lunches, Professor Duffy focused in on the Austrian victory column, adorned with a Habsburg eagle on the top. The column stood atop a square stone base that was decorated with bas-relief sculptures depicting various moments in the battle. One of the four panels depicted a scene wherein the Dragoon Regiment De Ligne was preparing to embark on its decisive counter-charge against the advancing Prussian cavalry. A hole had been broken in the Austrian line, and the only available asset to plug the hole was the De Ligne Dragoons.

The inscription recalls the moment when Marshall Daun turned to the inhaber (colonel) of the regiment and said, " you won't do very much with your lads; they have no moustaches." [implying that they were young and inexperienced] . To which the inhaber replied, "Lads, you may not have moustaches, but just show the general that you know how to bite. For biting [Prussians] does not require a moustache."

The De Ligne Dragoons proceeded to charge into the cauldron of battle and forestall the Prussian attack. Duffy opined that these words were more likely spoken by the cavalry general Serbelloni, rather than Marshal Daun.

Another panel illustrated some battle trophies such as cannons, cannon balls, a stack of muskets and various banners and flags, specifically those of the Hoch and Deutschmeister Regt [IR3] and Botta [IR12]. Duffy related how the Botta regiment, deployed next to the earth work, ran out of ammunition, yet stood its ground, taking Prussian musket fire, yet unable to fire back in defense. Their inhaber, Colonel Prinz Kinskie, spied an ammo wagon behind the Austrian lines, heading for another regiment. Kinskie slapped leather and dashed over to the wagon, then levelled a brace of pistols at the driver and persuaded him to drive over to the Botta Regiment. The ammo was then distributed and Botta "did the Bad Guys down and saved the Habsburg monarchy! " in the words of Professor Duffy.

Further west, near the hamlet of Chosenitz, Duffy recounted how Manstein's Prussian attack was falling apart in front of the stalwart defense of the Austrian division commanded by Andlau. At one point, Frederick rode up to these men and supposedly uttered the memorable phrase, "Rogues, do you wish to live forever! " This apparently had no effect on the remaining Prussians who indeed had a great desire to live at least until tomorrow, if not forever. A bit later, Frederick grabbed the regimental flag of IR3 , drew his sword in rather dramatic fashion, and proceeded to lead the charge himself, by example, and by his very lonesome self, the rest of the regiment being so inspired by his example that they continued to fall back. One of Frederick's aides asked his sovereign if he intended to defeat Andlau all by himself, and so Frederick sensibly retired.

As Duffy put it: "One thing about Frederick, in battle he was very excitable; he'd either run away or attack the Austrians single handedly; there was no halfway with him."

Frederick, apparently, did both at Kolin for he was alledged to have fled from the field when it became evident that the battle was lost and he stopped at a little chapel to have a good crying session. Alte Fritz had suffered his first defeat and the Austrian empire was saved. Frederick would undoubtedly have cried even harder had he but known that the Prague garrison would have been forced to capitulate in two more days, and had he not fought at Kolin, Daun would not have attacked the Prussians. The fall of Prague might have brought the Austrians to the peace table, shortening the SYW by a good five years.

Following In The Footsteps of Alte Fritz

Tour Introduction
The Tour Begins
Battles: Lobositz, Meissen, and Others
Battles: Hochkirch, Torgau, and Last Day